Austria vs France: Can a recently in form Austria finally end Euro hoodoo?
Originally posted on Top-soccer.com
Austria will be hopeful of ending their frustrating Euro hoodoo as they prepare to take on title-contenders France on Monday. Although they have never gotten beyond the round of 16 in this competition, Ralf Rangnick’s squad have been in great form lately, and are unbeaten in their last seven matches across all competitions since narrowly losing 3-2 to Belgium during qualifiers back in October 2023. In fact, until they were held to a 1-1 draw against Switzerland in a friendly match on June 8th, Austria had strung together a series of six wins on the trot, and that includes beating fellow Euro 2024 participants Slovakia (2-0), Turkey (6-1), and Serbia (2-1).
This will be Austria’s fourth appearance at a European Championship and their third in a row. They will naturally hope to improve on their performance at last EURO tournament, during which they made it to the round of 16 for the first – and to date, only time in team history. Inter’s Marko Arnautović, who is also the country’s all-time top goalscorer, is one player who will need to have a big tournament for Austria if they want to have any hopes of getting out of their quartet, which also features Poland as well as France. They have, however, been dealt a huge blow due to long-term injuries to key players such as David Alaba and Sasa Kalajdzic, who have been ruled out of this competition due to ACL injuries.
Austria, who, not surprisingly, are no strangers to France, have won nine of their last 25 clashes against Les Bleus. It goes without saying that they will be up against a tough challenge against Didier Deschamps’s squad, who are viewed as one of the heavy favorites to win this summer’s tournament – especially with the caliber of players within their ranks. Kylian Mbappe, of course, has generated plenty of buzz and drama as is always the case, and now having secured his move to Real Madrid, he will obviously want to let his football do the talking after failing to win the Champions League during his time with PSG.
Meanwhile, veterans like Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud will be seeking to get their hands on a Euro title, especially in the case of Giroud who is set to call time on his international career at the end of Euro 2024. Certainly, as France’s all-time top goal-scorer, he’d want to go out with another winner’s medal around his neck after the disappointment France experienced eight years ago, when they hosted Euro 2016 and were defeated in the final by Portugal.
As expected, France had no issues cruising through qualifiers for this competition, and that included a record breaking 14-0 demolition of minnows Gibraltar along the way. However, they surprisingly were held to a scoreless stalemate against Canada in their last pre-tournament warm-up friendly, but nonetheless are expected to shake that off to lay down a clear marker in Monday’s match. After all, it’s been well over a decade (since 2012) that France lost in a group stage game at a European competition, and their two most recent meetings with Austria resulted in a draw and a win.
With many of the tournament favorites – including Spain, Germany, England, and reigning champions Italy – all battling to wins in their respective openers, eyes will be on France to see how Les Bleus kick off their campaign here. As for Austria, with the Netherlands winning their tie against Poland, they will be hopeful of trying their best to get something out of this match so as to put themselves in decent stead when they face Poland on matchday two.
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